Shego closed her forest green eyes and rubbed her temples, trying to will away the rapidly blossoming headache.
The shrill and high-pitched screams were still echoing inside her skull, the flailing and slightly panicked form still etched in her mind’s eye.
She had gone over the scenario over and over and over again. She had laid out the rules. She had discussed the possible glitches. She had prepared for every imaginable permutation and option that could potentially be realized.
But even with all her careful and considerate planning, there was still that one surprise and unknown variable that would enter the equation at the last second, and throw off all the prior calculations.
It just had to be that way, it seemed. With so many things in her life.
“Shego?” Kim’s soft voice interrupted. Shego blinked, and tried to clear her head.
Shego turned around to face her partner.
“How’s she doing?”
Kim smiled wistfully. “She’s doing…better.”
Shego sighed. “I’m so sorry Kim, I should have realized…”
“It’s not your fault.” Kim whispered, stepping forwards to hug her wife in a comforting embrace.
“But she was so scared!” Shego murmured, looking at her shoes, afraid to look Kim in the eye. “Did you see the look in her eyes? She was so frightened.”
“Weren’t YOU when you were little?” Kim asked, tilting Shego’s head up to look into her dark green eyes.
“No, of course not!” Shego scoffed, the barest hint of a grin on her pale green face.
“Shego!” Kim gently slapped the older woman. “Don’t tell me you were never afraid of getting a haircut. When I was a little kid, I was terrified!”
“Nope Princess, not I.” Shego beamed.
Kim laughed. “Okay, so maybe YOU were never afraid of a barber, but most little kids are.”
Shego shrugged and rolled her eyes. “What’s so frightening about them?”
“Hello? There’s this stranger grabbing your hair with one hand, and there’s a sharp metal object in the other. What’s NOT scary about that? When I was little, I thought they were going to accidentally cut off my ear or something.” Kim threw up her hands, miming the actions.
“Yeah, well if anyone tried to attack ME with a sharp pointy metal object…” Shego ignited her plasma flames and arched an elegant eyebrow.
“I would like to remind you that it was YOUR plasma flames that got us in trouble in the first place.” Kim admonished, crossing her arms.
Shego coughed, and looked slightly embarrassed. She let her glowing green flames go out with a soft whooshing sound.
“What on earth made you think that you could teach our daughter how to curl her hair with her own plasma heat?!” Kim exclaimed, her expression disbelieving. “Is that even physically possible?”
“I’ve tried it. Um, once.” Shego admitted sheepishly. “It was a long time ago.”
“Uh huh…and how did it turn out, hm?” Kim tapped her foot expectantly.
“Oh, it was. Um, err, interesting.” The older woman blushed.
“I see. And why did you think our daughter could do it then?”
“She has a better artistic eye than I do.” Shego offered helpfully.
“Well, good thing the hair stylist could fix it, that’s all I can say.”
“She looks nice with short hair. At least the split ends are gone.”
Kim nodded thoughtfully. “Good point. She needed a haircut anyway.”
“And she’ll get better at it. Next time will go much smoother, I’m sure of it.”
“She – what?” Kim gaped. “What?”
“I told her she just needs more practice.”
“Practice?” Kim eyed her wife.
“Yeah. Dolls. You know…she could practice her hair curling technique on her dolls. I just told her to use extremely low heat and it shouldn’t be a problem.”
Without a word, Kim walked into the kitchen.
“What are you doing?” The raven-haired woman inquired from the living room.
“Looking for the fire extinguisher.”
The End
Next Prompt: “Insides”